Pursuing Profit

After sending the little kids home and handling the evening check-ins, the day’s work was over. Fuzuki-san went home first, and I returned to the house after the sun had completely set.

I ate a huge dinner, took a bath, returned to my room, and sprawled out on the tatami. Deciding this wouldn’t do, I sat back up and opened an English study guide. Studying in a room filled with the sound of wind chimes while sipping barley tea was incredibly productive.

Before I knew it, it was already 10 p.m. Normally, it still wouldn’t have been time for bed, but I could move my daily schedule forward so I could wake up early.

As I wondered what to do, there was a knock from the room next door.

“Rokurō, do you have a minute?”

“Yeah. Come in.”

I turned only my head, and the sliding door opened as Yūha entered. She quietly padded over, carrying a floor cushion, and sat down beside me.

“You were studying again. Aren’t you tired?”

“Today wasn’t too bad.”

Dealing with the brats had been exhausting, but it was far easier than farm work. Once you knew that kind of hardship, you could endure most jobs.

“How was it for you, Yūha? Think you’ll be able to get along with Riichi-san?”

“Yeah. He seemed really kind, and—oh, right—the stew he made for me was incredibly delicious.”

“Huh. That’s good.”

“Have you ever eaten the manager’s cooking, Rokurō?”

“No. When I met Riichi-san, he was still training. He didn’t even have a restaurant yet, so I never got the chance.”

“You should come to the restaurant sometime. I’ll come take your order myself.”

“I’m going tomorrow.”

“Wha—t-tomorrow!?”

Yūha recoiled in surprise.

“Fuzuki-san suggested it herself. Since it’s your first job, she said I should go see how you’re doing on your first day.”

“A-A-Ahh…”

“Why are you panicking so much? Is there something wrong?”

“B-Because it’s tomorrow! I don’t know anything yet, and I might mess up!”

“Don’t worry. I’ll laugh my ass off if you do.”

“That’s exactly what I don’t want!”

She puffed out her cheeks and started smacking me lightly on the shoulder. She was already entertaining enough as it was.

“Well, no matter what you say, I’m definitely going.”

“I hate this. You’re seriously the worst… Oh, speaking of the worst, hey, Rokurō.”

“Why does ‘speaking of the worst’ remind you of something involving me?”

That was a surprisingly hurtful way for the subject to shift. Maybe my sense of values was broken if I felt like being called a piece of trash to my face would have been better.

“That’s because you keep doing awful things, Rokurō.”

“So I brought it on myself, huh? Put that way, I really can’t argue.”

I crossed my arms and nodded solemnly. For someone only in his twenties, I had committed an unreasonable number of misdeeds.

My moral compass had been cut away along with my umbilical cord, and it wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say I’d done everything that didn’t technically break the law.

“So, what am I being accused of this time?”

“It’s about what happened with Misuzu-san and the others two years ago. You know, when you said you first met the people from the ‘Student Town Revitalization Team.’”

“…That. Right, you said you were going to ask about it.”

“That whole thing was a little unlike you, wasn’t it?”

Yūha’s eyes fixed directly on mine. Feeling like a criminal sitting across from a detective, I took a sip of barley tea.

“I see. What part of it didn’t seem like me?”

“Why did you deliberately talk to Misuzu-san in a way that would provoke her? If she was annoying, you could’ve just brushed her off. And if there was something you didn’t like, you could’ve calmly talked some sense into her.”

“Because she irritated me. Looking at Kagari pissed me off.”

“Maybe that’s true too, but was that really all there was to it?”

Yūha leaned closer with a look of certainty. Her expressive eyes were asking whether I was hiding something else, whether I’d had some ulterior motive.

“What do you think that ‘something else’ was?”

So instead, I turned the question back on her. I wanted to see just how well Yūha understood me.

She was right that I had been hiding something. The real question was what exactly I’d hidden.

After all, this was me. It was only natural for me to have secrets. A liar muddied as many truths as the number of footprints he left behind.

“I think someone asked you to talk to Misuzu-san and the others.”

I nodded at the look asking whether she’d gotten it right and prompted her to continue.

“Who do you think it was?”

“The adults in the village, right? Back then, you were working every day, doing farm work and helping elderly people too, so—you must’ve known plenty of adults.”

The wind chime rang with a delicate note, and the night breeze gently stirred Yūha’s hair.

I let out a breath, and the momentum of it made the corners of my mouth loosen.

“Never thought you’d figure me out.”

“Good. I was right.”

Perhaps the tension had snapped, because Yūha flopped backward onto the tatami. She put one hand over her forehead and looked smugly at me through the gaps between her fingers.

Her shirt had ridden up and exposed her stomach, so I reached over and pulled it back down for her.

“You’re not mad?”

“No. Because you thought that was the best thing to do, right? If that’s the case, then I believe it must’ve been necessary.”

“You’re weird.”

“I don’t want to hear that from a weirdo. I’m the normal one!”

“You’re seriously messed up.”

“Don’t call me messed up!”

There was absolutely no intimidation in the way she pouted while rolling around on the tatami. Then again, no matter how angry Yūha got, there was no way I’d ever find her scary.

“Since you’ve already figured it out, I might as well tell you a little more.”

“So if I see through you, you’ll just explain it yourself?”

“That’s how lies work, isn’t it? There’s no point keeping something hidden after you’ve already been caught. It’s the same as the culprit in a mystery. Once there’s nowhere left to run, you start wanting to spill everything.”

“Hmm.”

Yūha seemed to think about something for a moment, but soon sat back up and resettled herself on the cushion.

“Then tell me.”

“First, there’s Kagari. She doesn’t realize it herself, but she’s actually pretty dangerous. She’s got a talent for winning people over. You like her as a person too, don’t you?”

“Winning people over…?”

“Put simply, it’s like being a womanizer, except better. She can capture people’s hearts regardless of their sex or age and turn them into her allies. If Kagari tells you, ‘You can do it,’ you start feeling like you actually can.

“Because of that, her group was producing results that didn’t match how young they were. Those kids genuinely believed, ‘We can do anything.’”

“Isn’t that a good thing?”

“On an individual level, sure. But once it becomes a group, that’s a different story. Dealing with your own kid is one thing, but if they start coordinating with other brats, even adults can’t keep them under control. And when the other side has already decided that ‘adults are the enemy,’ there’s no way you can compete with that while working every day too.”

Yūha listened without saying anything. She seemed to be desperately organizing everything in her head, so I paused for a moment before continuing.

“And that’s where I came in. I was a kid fresh out of an academically competitive high school who still didn’t know much about society, but I understood a little about adult circumstances too. So I told them, ‘I’ll try talking to them and getting them to calm down,’ and attempted to persuade Kagari and the others. …Though to be fair, I absolutely did get into a full-blown argument with them.”

I’d intended to handle it more smoothly, talk some sense into them, and end things there, but watching her had irritated me for some strange reason. That too was probably part of the power Misuzu Kagari possessed.

Having the kind of personality people couldn’t ignore was undoubtedly a talent in its own right.

It definitely wasn’t because I was a twisted person who couldn’t stand people like her who openly pursued straightforward ideals. Absolutely not.

“As a result, I earned favors from the adults. If you earn favors from kids, the most you’ll get is some cheap candy. But with adults, you get work. Better treatment. Free meals. It’s obvious which side I should’ve taken.”

“Hehe.”

For some reason, Yūha burst out laughing and kept laughing for a while.

After wiping away her tears and catching her breath, she spoke as though she found the whole thing hilarious.

“You make it sound so sinister, but you basically acted as a mediator between the adults and the kids, right? That’s just a genuinely good thing.”

“H-Hey, don’t say it like that! That’s embarrassing! That wasn’t my intention. I was just pursuing my own interests…”

“Yeah, yeah. I get it. Rokurō is a horrible piece of trash, so obviously he’d never do anything kind like that. I’ll pretend that’s what happened for you.”

“Gh—I’m definitely going to the restaurant tomorrow and witnessing your first mistake.”

“You’re seriously the worst! That’s completely unrelated!”

“Fwahahaha! As if I’d ever let myself be the only one getting attacked!”

“I seriously can’t stand this guy.”

It had been a pretty close battle, but I could count today as my victory, right?